Single-channel electron multipliers have often been used to detect ions. E.g., Kurz U.S. Pat. No. 4,227,087 discloses a single channel multiplier with an attached, adjacent faraday cup in position to receive an ion beam in an undeflected trajectory (to sense an unamplified beam), the beam being deflected to the multiplier when amplification is desired. The outputs of the multiplier and faraday cup are electrically common, and the device is switched between the amplification and faraday cup modes simply by applying to or removing from the input of the multiplier a large negative voltage of sufficient strength to deflect the beam.
Microchannel plates (MCPs) have also been used with adjacent faraday cups to detect ions, high negative voltages being used to deflect the ion beam from the faraday cup to the MCP.